Browse Case Studies

Sean built an ascending-clock second-price auction platform to resolve disputes over valuable new top-level domains (.app, .blog, .church, etc.) worth hundreds of millions. After 8 months of grueling direct outreach to reluctant tech giants, he convinced Google and other major companies to use the platform, which has since facilitated auctions exceeding $100 million per domain. The business model charges 4% commission on auction proceeds.

Gold Belly is a marketplace that connects customers with famous regional specialty foods and products from local restaurants and shops across the US, shipping them nationwide with special preservation packaging. Founded by Joe Ariel (former CEO of Deliver.com, Y Combinator alumnus), the company raised $33 million and is experiencing explosive growth, with many partner restaurants showing delayed delivery due to high demand.

Vongole was a mobile app advertising network founded by Jack Smith that pioneered cost-per-install (CPI) pricing rather than traditional CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) metrics. The company discovered product-market fit in just two weeks by pivoting from an app store review aggregator after customer research revealed that app developers' biggest pain point was user acquisition. The company achieved hundreds of millions in revenue and sold for approximately $750 million.

Bitcloud is an invite-only, blockchain-based social network that lets users buy and sell 'creator coins' tied to people's reputation and popularity. Pre-loaded accounts for the top 15,000 Twitter influencers with founder rewards (ranging up to $50k+) have driven viral adoption among early adopters, who report 5-10x returns in days. However, the platform currently has no withdrawal mechanism, causing skepticism about whether it's a long-term protocol or speculative bubble.

David Friedberg founded Canna (formerly The Production Board), a molecular beverage printer that allows consumers to create any beverage at home by combining water with flavor cartridges containing chemically-extracted compounds. The device launched pre-orders at $499 for the first 10,000 units, charging per drink consumed (25-50% cheaper than retail) with auto-shipped cartridges. The three-year R&D effort involved analyzing thousands of beverages via GCMS to prove that all drinks are 99% water and only 1% flavor compounds, enabling a long-tail beverage marketplace similar to YouTube or TikTok.

Cherry is a browser extension that helps accommodation businesses get direct bookings by showing customers better deals when they search on travel sites like Expedia and Booking.com. In four months, they onboarded nearly 1,000 partner properties across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with plans to launch in the US with 20,000 properties by November. They charge hotels a performance fee of $10/month plus $0.79 per click, significantly cheaper than the 30% commissions charged by major OTAs.

Orangewood Robotics is a hardware startup that trains general-purpose robotic arms to perform high-value industrial tasks like powder coating, painting, welding, and pick-and-pack operations. The company leverages affordable, programmable robotic arms (similar to how the iPhone became a platform) and writes specialized software to teach them different manufacturing processes. They rent their services to industrial clients for around $500/day, offering reliability and consistency that beats manual labor.

Billy McFarland, infamous for the failed Fyre Festival, is attempting a comeback with Pyrate, a platform that hosts small groups (6-15 people) on private island adventures while livestreaming experiences to virtual audiences who can interact and influence real-world events in real-time. The venture aims to generate revenue through micro-transactions (e.g., $0.20 per action) from millions of virtual viewers, with aspirations to exceed the Bahamas' annual tourism numbers through virtual attendance.

Sulamon Ali founded Tiny Co in 2009 to create mobile games for the newly launched iPhone App Store. Their first game, Tap Resort, generated $500-600K in revenue in its first month through a partnership with mobile ad network Tapjoy. After raising $18M from Andreessen Horowitz (with Mark Andreessen joining the board), they scaled to $20M revenue in year one and $40M in year two, but hit a wall when Japanese mobile gaming competitors drove customer acquisition costs from $1 to $9, destroying their unit economics and leading to significant monthly losses.

Doug DeMuro, a popular YouTube car reviewer with 4 million subscribers, launched Cars and Bids in June 2020 as a modern alternative to Bring a Trailer. The platform focuses on 1980s-onward cars and generated 75 million in gross sales in 2021. In 2022, Doug sold a majority stake to Churn Group (a PE firm specializing in creator-led businesses) for approximately 40 million dollars, allowing him to scale operations while maintaining creative control.

Vungal was a mobile app advertising network founded by Jack Smith that pioneered cost-per-install (CPI) pricing instead of traditional CPM models. The company launched 12-18 months after the iPhone App Store opened, capturing perfect timing in a high-growth market. It sold for hundreds of millions in revenue with 60% margins for the company, making it one of the most profitable ad tech businesses.

Vongol was a mobile video ad network founded by Jack Smith that revolutionized app monetization by charging based on app installs rather than video impressions. Starting with mockup-driven cold outreach that generated ~$1M in developer commitments, the company scaled to ~$1M in daily revenue within seven years and sold for approximately $800M. The company's competitive advantage included proprietary iPhone screen recording capabilities and direct relationships with app developers.